WWII Diary of Chick Bruns – 70 Years Ago

Old fort at Rabat

Boy it didn’t take the French fellows long to catch on to the chow line. They are just as big as chow hounds as the rest of us are. We had an easy day today so I finished the book called “Millie”. In the evening we played football and volleyball and the French wanted us to play them a game. We beat them badly for two games and then we thought we had better let them win a game. When they saw us letting down they got mad and wanted us to play hard. They are funny people. They have orderlies that are Moroccan and they wait on them just like negro slave that also get paid very low as also the French man do. We had white bread for supper tonight and the Frenchman thought it was cake. Boy what I wouldn’t give for a piece of cake right now.

The days are all about the same. Today we are going to have some French officers and non Commission officers come here to learn our way of handling Engineer equipment. They got to go to the head of Chow line today but they were told that they would have to make a dash like the rest of the fellows if they want to be first. They seem happy and most of them saw action against the Germans in France. I started reading a book called “millie” and boy what a book We worked late to night getting a shortage list made out.

Rabat Gov’t Office

What do you know, we had to stand reveille this morning. We had got away with it for quite a while though. We have been having a clothing check all day and will have quite a job ahead of us tomorrow. I think I will read a book called ‘Milie’ and then go to bed. It looks like rain again but I hope it doesn’t.

It was blowing very hard this morning and we were wondering when our tent was going to blow away. Most of the fellows pup tents were full of water and part of them had blown away. Boy was it a mess. All of the fellows was wet and cold. It stayed miserable all day long so you can imagine how we were going to feel to night. My fart sack is dry thank god so I am going to get some sleep.

Wash Day

We didn’t have very much to do today so I read a book most of the day. I had to dry out a few gloves that had got wet. It looks as if it is going to rain. Boy when I said rain, I really mean rain. We spent half the night trying to find a dry place to sleep. We would get fixed one way and then the rain would start coming through where we were. We would just laugh and get a big kick out of it. We were sleeping in an I.C. tent as it was already for salvage. So you can imagine what it was like. We felt like pitching our shelter half tents to keep dry. We finally found a place to lay down but the water was still coming through on us. We put buckets in most of the places and went to sleep.

Well we didn’t go to Rabat to mass but instead we went to mass out in the field. It was held at the 3rd Med. We had a good dinner today. We had French bread instead of old hard biscuits for bread. We also had hamburger and that was a treat compared to canned meat and bean or canned stew. We played football in the afternoon and cribbage again in the evening.

It rained a little last night but not much. Wellman (Kleon Wellman) has gone to town so Badali and I each have a job to do. He is going to the Ordnance and I have an all morning job of straightening out a ball of marlin. I think I will try and write a letter today, so I hope it doesn’t bounce. I took another bath out of a bucket and then shaved. We played cribbage again, in fact, we play every night. Badali & I stand the kitchen and garage crew. I am going to mass in Rabat tomorrow. They are taking us in a truck.

Well so far it hasn’t rained but it sure looks as if it’s going to. I don’t know if we are going to get our clothes dry or not. We have left them out for a while and then took them down. We played football till way after dark and you couldn’t see the ball at all. We then played cribbage by candle light as the lantern is on the blink. Old Badali and I won 3 games to 2. We then went to bed.